That’s an interesting subject.

Once he loses power, the assault on his reputation will begin in earnest and decline exponentially there after. As the Clinton presedency fades into the past, it will appear more and more steller, and will force comparisons with Bush which will push him down even further.

This occurs because he no longer has power, and journalist no longer have nothing to gain by pandering to him.

But with Bush there might be a new wrinkle.

He will be the poster boy for why conservativism is a bad idea. This may creat a well funded movement to cast his presidency in a new or more positive light.

More likely though, even Conservatives will abandone him saying “he’s not a conservative”, he’s not what true conservativism represents. If that happens, his post presidency will tortuous. As it should be.

He may even yet, live to see Nuremburg type war crimes tribunal and crimes against humanity. Maybe even a new crime: crimes against and perversion of democracy.

My guess is he’ll just fade into obscurity. I don’t get the impression Bush is all that fame-hungry, or even power-hungry. For all the talk of what a tough guy he’s supposed to be, he always seemed to me to be in way over his head, and not particularly enjoying his job. I doubt he’ll want to linger in the role longer than he has to. I think he’ll happily retire to a ranch somewhere like the simple man he is.

I agree with Tim that journalists will drop the reverence for him like he’s a hot coal, and that conservatives will most likely abandon him. They needed him for elections, so they basically deified him and built up this legend of a straight-shooter, John Wayne-esque figure with Roosevelt undertones.

But once he’s out of office that free ride ends. He’s an embarrassment. They’ll want (and need) to put as much distance between him and their movement as possible.

I agree with almost everything you say, Jeff–that he’s in over his head (it isn’t really all so much his game, after all), and that conservatives will likely be as hard on him as liberals, seeing as how he’s driven down the party and abandoned even the pretense of fiscal conservatism, as well as other core conservative values.

Many right-wingers will continue to be die-hards and may even compare him to Reagan in some ways (the 9/11 iconography was too good for too many). He’ll always have 9/11 like Bush 41 had the Berlin Wall–probably not so much a victory as it is a symbolic connection, though.

But I disagree on one point–he may try to disappear and may even feel he wants to, but he’s got an addictive personality. I don’t think he’ll be able to stay out of the limelight for too long. I both hope he will stay out (for obvious reasons) and hope he’ll jump back in (for galvanizing the left), but I think he won’t be all that quiet.

Isn’t he planning to flee to Paraguay? 😉

http://www.google.com/search?q=Bush+property+Paraguay

It’ll be very interesting to see how he reacts to getting pulled out of the limelight. It’ll show just how much he enjoyed (or thoroughly didn’t enjoy) his job. If he just disappeared altogether, it would work as a tacit agreement that he had no place being in the limelight in the first place. But even with an addictive personality, it’s hard to tell if this is something he’s gotten addicted to.

Most people work their butts off to become president, and just getting there shows their tremendous ambition to rise that high. Leaving the role must be very depressing for that type of personality.

But Bush has been highly privileged his whole life, and never had to work hard for anything, because his family and the machine behind his party take care of it all. I don’t think a guy that never even had a job until he was something like 35 would feel the same drive to justify his existence after the age of 60 that say, Bill Clinton would.

There are a lot of people that are probably about as stupid as Bush that would be happy to try to keep hogging the limelight given the same opportunities he’ll get post-presidency, but they’re opinionated stupid people, with shrill ideas about how illegal immigration is the work of Satan, etc. But I don’t think Bush really has any strong or well-formulated opinions about much of anything off of his personal radar. That’s part of what made him appealing to some in the 2000 election, because his bland attitude made him appear “moderate” and possibly “bi-partisan”.

At worst, he’ll get wheeled out to speaking events like Reagan was, and like Reagan, will embarrass himself by how unknowledgeable he is and how little he can discuss policy.

But for even that to happen, he’ll need people that are willing to pay him to show up. Reagan was a likeable guy and the “movement” that went on under his watch was still wildly popular with conservatives after he left office, so they were happy to keep him around as a benign old figurehead symbol of their golden years in the Whitehouse, even if he couldn’t discuss anything worth a damn.

But who’s going to want Bush for that job? He’s a terrible speaker, even most conservatives at this point don’t like him, and rather than helping conservatism’s legacy, his presidency has endangered it. The machine will just spit him out.

P.S- I agree some right-wingers might want to keep up his legend (though they’d be a minority), but they’re as likely to say things like, “What we need right now is someone in office like Bush! Well, maybe not Bush, but someone LIKE Bush!” They ‘ll still want a John Wayne-as-president, but I doubt they’ll cling to Bush specifically.

They built Bush into something he wasn’t, because they needed someone to fill that role for them in their time of need and fear. But the next Republican that appears to be a butt-kicking masculine hero will get the same treatment, and they’ll forget the old guy’s name. “The King is Dead! Long live the the King!”

I would love to see more and more journalist asking him what kind of ex=president he plans on being? Will he be like Jimmy Carter? etc….

I bet the idea of living without power is a sobering thought for him. So I like the idea of journalist throwing it in his face.

I think it’s pretty obvious that he will go back to his farm, and chop some wood or so. That’s what he thought being a president was all about, so it’s also a good way for an ex-president.

And on top of that, doesn’t he have all this money to finish that he and his family earned by all this waging war? That will take some effort and time as well…